The Fender Vintage Noiseless Tele Pickup Set is for those who have always hoped they could find a humbucker with the bite, snap and snarl of a '60s Tele pickup. Now Fender has made that dream a reality. Designed with Special Alnico V magnets and enamel-coated magnet wire, these innovative stacked Tele pickups are even quieter than standard humbuckers! The neck pickup has a nickel silver cover for added clarity while the bridge pickup produces the traditional Tele twang. Each pickup proudly displays the Noiseless logo for more of that classic Fender vibe.

FEATURES

'60s Tele twang, snap, and snarl combined with humbucker quietness

Special Alnico V magnets in a stacked configuration

Enamel-coated magnet wire

Neck pickup has nickel silver cover for added clarity

Upgrade your Tele without altering its essential character. Order today.

My new Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups replaced the Tex-Mex set that came with my Nashville Deluxe Tele. In the first set I received, the bridge pickup was defective. I would recommend measuring them...Read complete review

My new Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups replaced the Tex-Mex set that came with my Nashville Deluxe Tele. In the first set I received, the bridge pickup was defective. I would recommend measuring them with a meter and compare them to the spec BEFORE you install them. My first bridge pickup measured > 200K instead of 8.6K spec and its output was only about 1/10th of the neck pickup and very thin. The current set sounds great and is quiet. While I can't specify the output level, the Vintage Noiseless pups drive my Fender Blues Jr about the same and have given me additional colors and tone over my original Tex-Mex pups. I am very pleased with them.

A couple hints: The instructions, essentially a wiring diagram without labels or values, was of little value. For this specific pup set, there are no references to if the potentiometers should be changed out. There are a number of references to the Strat set, to the Noiseless set in general being dual coil and therefore requiring higher value pots, and a recommendation from Fender support to change to 500K for the volume and 1M for the tone pots - that is what their Strat diagram indeed shows. My Tele sounded horrible with the 500Ks for both volume and tone. You could've etched glass! I was finally able to find Tele diagrams, with either 2 and 3 Vintage Noiseless pups, and the value was 250K for both volume and tone, and .022uF for the tone cap.

I also replaced the original pots and the tone cap with a better quality .022uF 200V cap because of the multiple solder heatings. Note the value of the cap was the same as my original value.

If you are changing out a set of Tex-Mex like I did, the old middle pickup will have yellow and red wiring. The new will have black and white wires. White = Yellow and Black = Red.

Finally, the Vintage Noiseless pickup was just a bit taller than my Tex-Mex pup so I needed a 3/4" set of mounting screws instead of 1/2" to properly adjust the height of the pickup. Otherwise, the pickup would fall out into the body cavity. Mine uses the rubber tubing and mounts to the pick guard. They were readily available at at local hardware stores (4-40, 3/4").

In spite of the defective bridge pickup, I still rated the Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups as excellent. The replacement set was perfect and Musician's Friend made the return and replacement painless.

Hope that is helpful to folks out there.... there wasn't much I found in searches or in the Tele forums.

VS

Most Liked Negative Review

Nailed the noise!

I installed these pick ups in a Squire Classic Vibe 50's Tele, and I have to say that Fender nailed the noise with these pick ups, but that's it! There is much...Read complete review

I installed these pick ups in a Squire Classic Vibe 50's Tele, and I have to say that Fender nailed the noise with these pick ups, but that's it! There is much to be desired in the tone department. The Bridge pickup has NO base plate underneath, therefore there is a lack of lows, mids, and punch. I mean if it's twang you want, and I mean nothing but twang, this is the pick up for you. Otherwise, you might want to utilize an equalizer if you don't already have one, to offset the lack in tone fullness. Looks like I'll have to do more research! You'd think after all it takes to purchase some of these guitars, at least the replacement parts would be of better quality! This was a disappointment Fender!

My new Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups replaced the Tex-Mex set that came with my Nashville Deluxe Tele. In the first set I received, the bridge pickup was defective. I would recommend measuring them with a meter and compare them to the spec BEFORE you install them. My first bridge pickup measured > 200K instead of 8.6K spec and its output was only about 1/10th of the neck pickup and very thin. The current set sounds great and is quiet. While I can't specify the output level, the Vintage Noiseless pups drive my Fender Blues Jr about the same and have given me additional colors and tone over my original Tex-Mex pups. I am very pleased with them.

A couple hints: The instructions, essentially a wiring diagram without labels or values, was of little value. For this specific pup set, there are no references to if the potentiometers should be changed out. There are a number of references to the Strat set, to the Noiseless set in general being dual coil and therefore requiring higher value pots, and a recommendation from Fender support to change to 500K for the volume and 1M for the tone pots - that is what their Strat diagram indeed shows. My Tele sounded horrible with the 500Ks for both volume and tone. You could've etched glass! I was finally able to find Tele diagrams, with either 2 and 3 Vintage Noiseless pups, and the value was 250K for both volume and tone, and .022uF for the tone cap.

I also replaced the original pots and the tone cap with a better quality .022uF 200V cap because of the multiple solder heatings. Note the value of the cap was the same as my original value.

If you are changing out a set of Tex-Mex like I did, the old middle pickup will have yellow and red wiring. The new will have black and white wires. White = Yellow and Black = Red.

Finally, the Vintage Noiseless pickup was just a bit taller than my Tex-Mex pup so I needed a 3/4" set of mounting screws instead of 1/2" to properly adjust the height of the pickup. Otherwise, the pickup would fall out into the body cavity. Mine uses the rubber tubing and mounts to the pick guard. They were readily available at at local hardware stores (4-40, 3/4").

In spite of the defective bridge pickup, I still rated the Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups as excellent. The replacement set was perfect and Musician's Friend made the return and replacement painless.

Hope that is helpful to folks out there.... there wasn't much I found in searches or in the Tele forums.

I keep going back and forth on these. I have a 2011 AmStd Telecaster, and I loved the stock pickups. I put VNs in, and after a few minutes of setting the EQ on my amp and guitar, I got some great tones. I really like both sets of pickups. Neither is "better" than the other, just very different. I get more twang with the VNs, a better middle-switch sound, and a larger variety of tones. The AmStd pups have an altogether different tone. Tele, but more modern, higher mids perhaps. May have to buy a second AmStd and keep it stock.

I don't know, maybe it's just bad luck! I found a beautiful 1998 MIM tele in Showroom condition, I mean it looks as though it was never played. So I decided to get it for myself this Christmas. I already have a MIM Fat Strat that is very nice But it has some 60 cycle hum (i've learned to live with), but This tele sounded great but the noise was way worse. So I decided to buy the Vintage Noiseless tele pick ups. After reading the intructions I notice that the pick ups are warranted by Fender if THEY ARE INSTALLED at an authorized Fender repair Shop, so I decided to have this authorized shop in Columbia SC install them. Well that was a big bummer because they did alot of things wrong to my tele and the pick ups were still noisy and not working right. So I went to another authorized Fender repair shop in Lexington SC. I told them what was going on and the said they would take a look. I was advised that the bridge pick up was only putting out less than half it's normal output but he would ask Fender about it. Well to make a long story shorter Fender sent out a relacement to the shop, if fact they sent out two replacement bridge pick ups. After waiting about a month I was told it was ready for me to pick up. well let me tell you it is the same noisy thing. it quiets if I touch the strings or any metal on the guitar but this time the bridge pick up doesn't even work. I'm taking it back to the shop in the morning. I tell you I've paid so much in repair charges that I wish I would have just bought the American version and pray that one is better. I'm not sure if it's the product (pick ups) or the authorized dealers doing my repairs. This was just supposed to be a simple pick up switch out and set up.I am very dissapointed!

27 five star ratings can't be wrong.Bridge/RhythmSleek, very attractive. I replaced what I believe were the stock pickups in a '92 American Tele. The vintage noiseless are not only super quiet but very thick sounding as well. Unlike many other Tele pickup configurations I've played, the neck pickup is evenly balanced with the bridge pickup (in volume, gain, treble, and bass.) Both pickups are very warm sounding, given you are playing through a tube amp. They clean up nicely with the volume knob in overdriven situations. No question the best option for replacing pickups in a Tele.For $120 - a tremendous deal, given the tone improvements in my tele.

I bought these for my 2010 American Standard, I wanted the classic Tele sound without the 60 cycle hum. This set delivers, I'm very happy with them. Sound great clean or dirty. The bridge is pretty hot considering they are actually stacked humbuckers, but still can get single coil sounds.

I played a Tele with the Samarium Cobalt pups, and wasn't really satisfied with the tone, so I picked these up instead after reading some great reviews. I am not disappointed in the least. Compared to my original pups (in a 2008 MIM Standard), these are far warmer sounding and have a far greater range - clean, I can get them to squeal or rumble or anything in between depending on my amp settings. But where they really shine is when I turn on a bit of overdrive - they have a wonderful crunch almost on par with a good set of humbuckers. Buy these - you won't regret it.

I installed these pick ups in a Squire Classic Vibe 50's Tele, and I have to say that Fender nailed the noise with these pick ups, but that's it! There is much to be desired in the tone department. The Bridge pickup has NO base plate underneath, therefore there is a lack of lows, mids, and punch. I mean if it's twang you want, and I mean nothing but twang, this is the pick up for you. Otherwise, you might want to utilize an equalizer if you don't already have one, to offset the lack in tone fullness. Looks like I'll have to do more research! You'd think after all it takes to purchase some of these guitars, at least the replacement parts would be of better quality! This was a disappointment Fender!

I bought these pickups for my Tele Thinline because it really hummed. I've been playing with them for 2 years now, so I figure I can write a good review. The PUPS aren't completely noiseless but they're a big step up from regular single coils. My one real complaint is that the low E string sounded really muddy when I first got the guitar back. But after moving the low string tree froward as far as possible, I solved this problem. As far as sound goes, these babies are sweet. They sound so much better than anything else I've ever heard. They can really scream, but they're also great for playing clean as well. They're great at high volumes and and are completely clean, no mud at all. I don't regret my decision to buy these PUPS. And, for $115 for the set, you cannot go wrong. If you're looking for a good set of Tele pickups, you have to go with the noiseless.

I installed these in my FrankenTele (Warmoth neck etc.) and find them very good and quiet. The twang is there, but not as much as I would like. Sensitivity is good and warmth is excellent. My kid put them in with no problems. Get 'em from your local guitar shop and ask for a good deal.

Not long ago I installed some Fender noiseless pickups in my strat and loved them. I decided to make the upgrade to my 2007 MIM Tele. The stock pickups were ok but the neck pup was a little muddy and of course, there was the ever-present buzz. These Fender Vintage Noiseless Tele pickups are great. The Tele twang is there and the tones are very clear. However, I was spoiled with the ease of the strat upgrade. The Tele upgrade involves removing the bridge assembly that means you will have to set everything up again so it?s more time consuming. These pickups are very much worth the time and effort. If you?re looking for that classic Tele sound without the noise buy these.